With today being September 11th, it only felt right to post a shot of the twin towers – seen here on the cover of the 2000 A&F Quarterly Back to School issue. A year before that tragic day, Abercrombie chose to shoot their fall catalog with New York City as their backdrop. I was a freshman at Rutgers University that year, and was heavily inspired by the images I saw in that catalog.
Rutgers was a 45-minute train ride from New York, and I made the most of the convenience by heading to the city as often as I could with my new college friends. I’ll never forget where I was the next year in 2001 on that fateful morning – sitting in my 2nd period Sociology class on a crisp, sunny 70-degree day. That September 11th would be the most intense, confusing day of my young life, as our cell phones stopped working and we all sat glued to the TV set in our dorm lounge most of the day wondering what was happening.
I remember a group of us heading to a local Red Cross building to try to give blood – we heard they needed tons of it in the city. Most of the town had the same idea, as the line went down the block for those who also wanted to donate.
2001, much like our current situation in 2020, was a turning point in our country and around the world. Life changed after September 11th. Things got worse, but eventually things got better. It’s interesting to flip through the pages of this catalog and see some familiar faces – there were articles about former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and up-and-coming comedians Jimmy Fallon and Margaret Cho.
The styles at the time were mostly baggy fits, with some preppy ties and shirts mixed in. 2000 was a carefree time for the youth of America, and looking back it’s shocking to see how much things have changed since then. Baggy is definitely back, but the apathetic vibes are long-gone. The youth of today are super-engaged in social justice causes. I remember nobody really cared about who to vote for in 2000; today, it’s all people talk about. It will be interesting to see how the culture continues to shift and adapt over the next 5 to 10 years, and whether we see actual change and improvement in our country or continued mounting frustration. I’m hoping and praying for the former.
